Witness for the Prosecution?

The class action lawsuits filed against Commission Junction, BeFree and ValueClick. has everyone very intrigued as to how it will play out. But for me right now, the results is really secondary to what comes before. As we know different people have different ideas on what "Adware" is and what "value add" is and what ""cannibalizing" of the merchants sales is. So I wonder who Nassiri & Jung LLP will call as their expert witness?

I've heard a number of rumors going around that the most obvious candidates for the role have been rejected, declined it, or said they would not accept the role of expert witness. I hope I'm wrong, because outside of a very select group, there are not many people that I would say know the full extent of what needs to be searched for, found and presented.

Linkshare Awards a real blast

Well, just got back from the Linkshare Awards Dinner - Food was awesome at Cyprianis and the networking was even better - these events are far too much fun to be considered work!

2 AMWSO clients were nominated this year, Forzieri for International Merchant and Gaiam for Innovative Merchant, and unfortunately we only won one of them.So Forzieri is a bridesmaid for the second time - but I get the feeling a future Golden Link is on its way for this excellent merchant and its super AM Patrick Goodfellow.On a brighter note, Gaiam as expected won Innovative Merchant of the Year for the use of affiliate coded text links in video - very cool - and it was a thrill to go up with Bill Moran from Gaiam to accept the award on behalf of Pete and James Nardell (the AMWSO AMs for Gaiam). Nice job indeed guys!

Personally I think the Innovative Merchant Award is one of the best prizes to win - it's super to be recognized for creativity and ingenuity! Congrats to all the winners, and indeed all who were nominated - see ya all at the Symposium.

Cheers,

Will H-W

A level playing field in affiliate program selection?

One thing I get asked frequently by new clients is, "Will our program be as big as Brand XYZ?". One issue they face right away is that affiliates prefer big brands to no brands, they convert better just for starters.

Nicky Senyard from Share Results put together this very good article on the topic of considering brand awareness when selecting affiliate programs;

There are several things that go into selecting a merchant affiliate program, such as creative selection, affiliate support and reporting capacity. Brand strength is another important factor to consider.

As much as I'd like to say that every new brand stands a great chance of doing as well as their big brand competitor, the reality is that the Internet is not the level playing field that it once was, not even when it comes to affiliates picking partners.

There is the occasional new brand that bucks the trend, but the reality is that big brands will still take in the majority of the online dollars. Small brands need to tell a very compelling story if they want to attract big affiliates to their programs. Going beyond commission and product price, and selling not only their program but also their product and brand to the affiliates. Else affiliates will generally not consider signing up.